


Home is where love is

by Batboywonder3



Category: Football RPF
Genre: A lot of football players cameos, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alvaro misses Real Madrid, Buffon is everyone's grandfather, Isco is kind of an asshole, M/M, Paulo moves to Turin and he's confused about everything, Pogba is a real bro, Slow Build, basically they all live in apartments and they hate each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-04-25 13:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4962139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Batboywonder3/pseuds/Batboywonder3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU</p>
<p>With a sigh Paulo heads to his building, it was the one with a big J at the front, the place was painted in stripes, black and white, his place was next to a building with an RM at the front, next to the RM one was building B, he had thought they were on alphabetical order but the letters made no sense at all. </p>
<p>or </p>
<p>"The one where every club is an apartment building and they are very competitive, Alvaro still misses Real Madrid and Paulo just wants to know why the fuck everyone is so weird"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The one where Paulo arrives

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multichapter fic, and I'm hoping to update once a week but we'll see how this goes. 
> 
> Sorry for any grammar mistakes but english is not my mother tongue, also constructive criticism is more than welcome.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paulo arrives, and things are...nice?

When Paulo moved to Turin he did it hoping his life would improve 100%, see, he moved because he got a scholarship from a good italian university, he was studying international relations, it wasn’t really something he loved, but well, there was good money on it and one of Paulo’s dream’s was to give his mother a nice house, his family wasn’t poor or anything like that, but they weren’t the richest family on Argentina, and Paulo’s mother sometimes had trouble with the bills, so yeah, Paulo wanted to help her with that, and coming to Turin was the first part of his plan, so after saving up he got the money for his airplane ticket just before the start of the semester.

So yeah, his plan was pretty simple, get a good scholarship, get good grades, graduate with honors, and then he could find a nice job so he could help his mother, it was pretty simple but again, Paulo’s always been a pretty simple guy, the thing was that he knew that if he wanted to eventually get to the top, he had to start from the bottom, only thing Paulo wasn’t expecting the bottom to be this…low.

Paulo was standing in front of some apartment buildings, each building was very close to the next one, so it was a fairly short distance between the windows, about 3 meters actually, that wasn’t the only thing, the buildings looked really old, and it seemed like no one took care of them, and had really weird colors, some buildings where white only, then there were others that had red and blue, it was all really…interesting, but, hey! he got this place for a really low price, so he wasn’t going to complain.

With a sigh Paulo headed to his building, it was the one with a big J at the front, the place was painted in stripes, black and white and Paulo was really curious about the painting thing, maybe he’ll ask someone later, before entering he looked around, his place was next to a building with an RM at the front, it was one of the white ones, next to the RM one was building B, he had thought they were on alphabetical order but the letters made no sense at all, so yeah he’ll ask latter, now he had things to do.

When he finally entered he almost cried, because his apartment was on the 4th floor and the stairs looked infinite, he silently cursed his landlord, Pirlo, for not telling him the building had no elevator. When he was about to start climbing the stairs, a door next to him opened, the door had the number one on it and from there appeared a man, older than Paulo but not really that old, he looked like he was on the prime of his life.

"Buongiorno bambino, you must be Paulo, si? Andrea told me about you” The man smiled in a friendly way that made Paulo feel safe for some reason, he had an italian accent so Paulo assumed he was from Italy.

“Yes, that’s me" he said smiling and coming back to greet the man by shaking his hand. "Paulo Dybala, at your service”

“Ohh what a nice young man we have here, my name is Gianluigi Buffon, some call me Gigi and others call me Buffon, but feel free to call me as you want” Paulo was fascinated by the fact that this man radiated trust, as if his nature was to save something. “I'm the building’s keeper, so anything you want to know or need help with, you come to me son, okay?”

Paulo nodded with a smile, so far the place was not bad, but well he had yet to see his new home, and actually he had no idea where the place was, he knew it was on the 4th floor but besides that he knew nothing.

“Now, I don’t know if you know where your apartment is?” Buffon asked, it was as if the man was a mid reader, so Paulo shook his head, there was no point on lying and he really wasn’t comfortable with the idea of getting lost. “Then I’ll show you the way, I was going upstairs any way” the italian grabbed one of Paulo’s bags and headed to the bottom of the stairs, and as Paulo imagined, the stairs looked infinite.

As they climbed the damn stairs, Buffon started to give a Paulo some information about his neighbors, Paulo really wanted to pay attention but there were so many names he could learn.

“Like I was saying, on the first floor you have Chiellini, Martin, Sami, Zaza and myself, Sami is new in the building like you, he’s from Germany and lord knows the poor kid is having trouble getting used to everything here, but lets hope you can adapt faster than him” Buffon told him more about this Sami guy, that he had never left Germany and this was the first time he tried new things so he was getting used to everyone being so friendly to him. ”On the second floor we have Claudio, Alvaro, Pogba, Hernandes and Alex, Alvaro and Pogba are the youngest in the building, so maybe you’ll get along just fine with them, there are others who are young but you’ll see that latter when you meet them”

They were barely in the second floor and Paulo was already tired, and he began to wonder how the fuck did Buffon was talking like he wasn’t climbing the stairs? he was even smiling, what made Paulo have to smile too, hiding the fact that he was getting tired, wow his physical condition was worse than he thought.

When they were on the 3rd floor Buffon continued with the list of people who lived there, for a moment the Argentine wondered if the building was as united as Buffon made it sound, and the idea was growing on Paulo, he suddenly looked forward to living there for the next 3 years.

"Here we have Barzagli, Cuadrado, Mario, Lemina and Leo" pointed to the hallway where the departments were. ”Cuadrado is very funny, he is from Colombia and Andrea told me that you were from Argentina, right? I hope you’ll get along with the boy, he lives at apartment 16” he pointed at the door with a 16 on it. “Leo lives at 19 and I would suggest to stay away from him, he’s a teaser and a pain in the ass” for some reason Buffon said this laughing, like he didn’t mean anything bad.

Thank God, after a few more steps, they were on the 4th floor.

"Finally, here is your place Paulo, you will live with Simone, Asamoah, Rugani and Neto, unfortunately for you on your floor there's no one who speaks Spanish but you'll get used to speaking italian, we all speak it here" Buffon walked over a few steps to reach the department that had a 21 at the door, coming to this, Buffon left the suitcases in front of his new home and turned to face Paulo. ”In the upper floors are Stephan, Stefano, Evra, Rubinho, Pereyra and Audero, you’ll get to meet everyone soon, and you’ll see you’ll get used to the building in no time”

“Thank you so much for helping me Buffon, grazie mile” the boy said with a huge smile, he thought that if his neighbors were all this friendly, he’d feel right at home in no time like the older man said.

“Ahh see? You're already speaking italian” Buffon slapped him in the shoulder and turned around to leave him alone with his new apartment, for the last time he saw Paulo and said. ”If you want anything, you’re welcome at my home, remember I’m at apartment one” he winked and left.

Paulo noticed that Buffon went downstairs, that was weird, since the man had told him he was going upstairs, well Paulo would have to thank him properly later, for now he had to unpack everything.

——————

4 hours later and it felt like he had done nothing, the place looked pretty empty and Paulo couldn’t understand why, his things were all in his room, his clothes were at the closet and his kitchen things where in the kitchen.

One of the reasons Paulo had liked the place in the photos, was because Andrea had told him that the place came with a sofa, a bed, a mattress and a refrigerator, and Paulo wanted to thank God because the last thing he wanted was to have to carry heavy furnitures trough the stairs from hell.

Still his place looked empty and he hated that, but he supposed it was normal since he had left all of his belongings at Argentina, he only had with him clothes, and the things he’ll need to get by. Feeling exhausted he decided he’d take a nap at his new living room, but when he got there he finally noticed what was missing, he had left his TV and his PS3 at his car, that explained why he was feeling so empty, he wasn’t a gamer but he enjoyed watching Netflix and playing FIFA.

So without waiting more, he got up and grabbed his keys to go downstairs, if he hurried he could take a nap before having dinner, he wanted to go to bed early since tomorrow was his first day of school.

As the argentine made his way downstairs, he tried to remember all the names Buffon had told him, after all it would be nice to get to know his neighbors.

“In the second floor we have Claudio, Alvaro and…Pogba…?” Paulo was thinking out loud, he couldn’t remember if that was his neighbor’s name, it sounded too weird to be true, but it was true, since someone actually answered at the name.

“Yes…?” Paulo looked at his right and realized there was someone there, he was coming out from an apartment with the number 10 at the front, the guy was tall and had his hair dyed blond, which was an interesting look. The man got closer to Paulo who was at the stairs. “Do I know you?”

“No, no sorry sorry, I was just trying to remember something Buffon told me” he excused himself quickly, the other man seemed a little angry and that made Paulo a little scared, he wasn’t looking for a fight on his first day there.

“Ohh you must be the new guy” his face changed from a frown to a smile, Paulo relaxed. “Yeah I’m Paul Pogba, nice to meet you…”

“Paulo Dybala” he offered the other his hand which he took still smiling, well this was getting with the right foot.

“Well don’t believe anything that old man tells you okay?” when he said that his face turned serious, only for a second though, because the next moment Paulo knew, the man was laughing. “I’m joking I’m joking, the man is great, actually everyone in this building is pretty awesome, can’t say that about the other buildings though” that sounded serious, but after the last joke Paulo felt he couldn’t trust Pogba’s tone.

“Uhh” he didn’t know what to say so he just stood there.

“Man, you are really shy, aren’t you?" Paul got closer to him to get a good look of the new boy. “Well Cuadrado was just like you, but he spent one week here and he was already pulling pranks on Leo, lets hope you’ll be just like him”

Paulo wasn’t shy at all, but since this was his first day in unknown ground, he had to be careful, his mother always told him to read the situation before acting on something, so he just laughed a little.

“We’ll see, but if you slip on a banana, well that’s not my fault” he joked, this guy was pretty funny, and Paulo could joke if he wanted to.

“A banana peel? That's the best you can do? You'll get yourself eaten here kid” Pogba was smirking at Paulo, and it felt like he liked the Argentinean. “Well, new boy, are you going downstairs? Or you’ll just stand there?” without saying anything else Pogba went downstairs and Paulo followed him, yeah he could feel they were going to be good friends.

“You call me kid and boy, but you can’t be much older than me, how old are you? 22? 23?” his neighbor looked young, and Buffon had told him that Alvaro and Pogba where about his age.

“You guessed right, I’m 22” he answered. “and you? You can’t be more than 20” he looked over him.

“I’m actually 21 years old” they kept talking while they arrived to the first floor.“Your accent is funny, you’re not from here?

“Ahh just when I thought I had improved my italian” Pogba said, actually it wasn’t bad at all, but he sounded different to Buffon, and since the other one radiated italianness, well Paulo was only comparing. “I’m from France mon ami, you’re not from around either, where are you from?”

“Argentine, my mom has italian roots but I’m 100% argentine” he was proud of his heritage, both polish and italian, the thing is that he was born and raised in Argentina and he loved his country.

“Well, Argentine boy, there are actually more argentines in the buildings, but I’d recommend not to mess with anyone that’s not from the J building, specially if you’re new here” and again with the building thing, maybe Pogba was the one he’d ask about that.

“Hey about that, you said not to mess with anyone and I can’t help but notice the building's letters and colors, what’s up with that?” Paulo noticed now they where in the first floor, and just like that they were outside.

“Well that’s a story for other day Paulo, sadly I have to get going, but it was nice meeting you” Pogba said goodbye and left Paulo all alone in the parking lot. The young man thought it was a weird reaction, but maybe Pogba was in a hurry, well for now he headed to his car to get his stuff.

——————

And again he faced his worst enemy, the fucking stairs, only that this time Paulo was in great disadvantage, he was carrying his PS3 and his TV, don’t ask how he managed to get to the 3rd floor without falling, but he had, so he only had one more floor to go and he’d be safe and sound, but of course God had different plans because just when he was going to take one more step, he slipped and he fell.

Or at least he should have fell, but instead he felt a pair of strong arms holding him, he tried to look over to see his savior but he couldn’t move at all, and the other must have seen this because he finally spoke.

“Okay so what we’re going to do is that I’m going to push you forward and then I’ll take the TV so you’ll have less weigh now, okay?” the person had a lovely italian accent and he sounded like a grown up, not like Pogba grown up, but like a Buffon grown up.

“Uno, due, tre” and at that he found his balance and was able to stand still, then he felt a weight leaving and just like that he felt better, finally he could see who saved him, he was a man, maybe in his late twenties, with beard and wow, Paulo had never seen someone so attractive, he looked like a model. “What were you thinking?” he asked, and for some reason it felt like a parent calling out his son which was weird. “Well it doesn’t matter now, I’m Claudio by that way, you must be the new kid”

Paulo nodded for what felt like the 40th time that day. “Yeah Paulo, I’m on Pirlo’s old apartment”

“Ahh yes, Buffon told me a little about you, we were expecting some…older, but you’ll do just fine” Paulo wasn’t sure what was he going to be “just fine” for, but he wasn’t in the mood to know. “Well Paulo, let me help you get this up to your apartment, we don’t need more deaths around here”

“More?…” Paulo couldn’t help to ask, is that why Pirlo moved out? he was now scared, but Claudio started to laugh and the argentine felt stupid.

“You’re so gullible son, relax, no one died, not here at least” that wasn’t calming at all but Paulo won’t ask, the rest of the way Claudio asked Paulo some things, basically the same things Pogba had asked earlier, once they were at his apartment, Claudio helped install the TV and in about 10 minutes everything was set up and ready to use. Paulo invited Claudio to play FIFA as a thank you, but the man declined the offer.

“I’m no good in those things, but I appreciate the feeling” he said once he was at the door, Paulo felt bad because he wanted to thank him in some way, so he said that to the man. “Don’t worry, here in the building we always help each other, but you know what? Pogba won’t say no to FIFA, neither would Cuadrado, Leo and Alvaro, so once you get to know them you can play with them” he smiled and said his goodbyes to Paulo, who once again was left alone in his apartment.

When he looked at the clock he realized it was already 11pm, so he grabbed some cereal and went to bed.

Tomorrow he had an exciting day ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there it is, the first chapter, I know you all wanted Morata to appear by now, but when I say slow build, I mean it
> 
> Any ways here's my tumblr in case someone wants it bat-boywonder.tumblr.com 
> 
> Go there if you have doubts, complains or something to say. 
> 
> Don't forget to comment if you enjoyed it.


	2. The one with Paulo's first day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paulo is new and is scared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing a multichapter fic is hard, just when it feels like I wrote a lot, I realize its nothing.

Just like Paulo thought, next day ended up being an exciting day.

That day he got lost, he fell in love, he made new friends, and that happened even before he had breakfast.

So actually it was more like the most stressful day in his whole life, but back to the start.

His morning started something like this.

Paulo was sleeping like a baby, dreaming about a brighter future, full of balls, football balls, he was running on a pitch, he felt happy, safe and sound, and everything was in peace, until a song started to sound.

“ _When the moon hits your eye_

 _like a big pizza pie, that’s amore_ ”

Paulo stopped running and looked around, searching for the source of the music, but when the music got louder and louder, he woke up.

He actually woke up because someone was singing really loudly, and it wasn’t like the man, because it had to be a man, had a bad voice, his performance of That’s Amore was quite lovely, and if Paulo hand’t realized he was late for school, he might have stayed a couple of minutes just to hear the end of the song, but sadly he was late, like really really late and he had to leave 10 minutes ago.

“Mierda mierda mierda” he mumbled as he got out of bed, grabbing clean clothes and trying not to fall asleep again.

Paulo took the fastest shower ever, honestly he’d put Flash on shame, and just with a toast in his mouth he left the building, thankfully he had his car parked near, so in a couple of minutes he was already on the road to school, luckily for him he also had technology on his side, Paulo wasn’t the best at getting to places, so for people like him, Google Maps was truly a blessing, the nice voice in the app told him the fastest way to get to campus and just then, it appeared that God indeed loved him since there was almost no traffic at all.

Just a couple of turns to the left and he was on campus, this was the first time he was there, only knew the campus by photos and stuff, and again, if he wasn’t so late he’d look around a little bit more, he’d explore the campus, maybe go to a small cafe near by because he was starving, but he’d have time to eat later, now he had only one goal in mind, get to class before it was too late.

Amazingly he made it just in time, or at least that’s what he thought, because as soon as he was out of his car, he realized he had no idea where his classroom was.

Paulo figured out he looked quite stupid, walking around campus with a map of the place and some papers in his hands, but hey he was new there and didn’t even speak the language, so he could be forgiven some things.

He walked and walked and then walked a little more, he got to one of the campus buildings and for a moment the thought he was at the right place, but then he saw that there were labs there and as far as Paulo knew, international relations had nothing to do with science, so that was defiantly not his place.

After a couple of minutes of being completely lost, Paulo sat on a nearby bench, he wanted to cry, he felt like all of this had been one huge mistake, what the fuck was he doing in, not just a foreign country, but a continent, he was apart from his loved ones and apart from the only country he has ever known, Paulo wanted to call his mom and tell her that he was going back right now. For the first time in a while, he felt like a child lost in the woods trying to find his mother, and apparently he looked like one too, since someone actually approached him to ask if everything was okay.

At first Paulo didn’t understand what the other guy was trying to tell him, maybe because he was talking in italian or maybe because Paulo was close to crying, but then the guy started to talk in spanish and that Paulo fully understood.

“So no italian then eh?” the other guy tried to joke, but since he got no positive response from Paulo, he just asked. “Hey are you okay? You seem kind of…” it seemed like the guy was going to say sad, scared or even teary, but he just said. “Lost?” and for that Paulo was grateful, the last thing he needed was a stranger watching him cry.

“Yes, I’m…I’m lost” now Paulo wasn’t someone who hated to ask for help, but he can’t help but to feel disappointed on himself, he can’t even survive one day without help?

“Don’t worry I got lost the first time I was here too” just now Paulo really looked at the guy, since he was just staring at the floor before, and man, that guy was really really handsome, it might be one of the best looking guys he’s ever seen, and not in like a Claudio way, because seriously that man had to be a model, but in a more real way.

His savior was tall, and he had a beard, not a bushy one, but more like a stubble and the look fitted him so well, he also was dressed really nice and one of the things Paulo liked more about guys, was when they knew how to dress, and this guy obviously knew how to.

“Okay so you’re trying to get to the business building, that’s over there” the guy pointed to a tall building that was just behind Paulo. “Once you’re there you’ll have to get to room 202, that’s on the first floor so I take you won’t have any trouble finding that, right?” he wasn’t being mean at all, and he actually sounded really caring, like he was worried about some new guy he jus met, and that was enough to make Paulo all flushed.

“Yes, I’ll—I’ll be fine” the argentine smiled at him shyly, not because he was shy at all, but because the taller one was also smiling at him and he had a beautiful smile, Paulo wasn’t the kind of guy who crushed at strangers, but this man was the exception, because Paulo really wanted to keep talking to him and maybe get his number, but just as he was going to ask for his name, the other one looked at his cellphone and made a worried face.

“Mierda, I’m late, well new guy, hope you don’t get lost again!!” and just like that his savior was gone, apparently he was heading to the labs, and Paulo wondered what was the man studying, but he couldn’t afford to loose more time, he was already late and now he knew where his classroom was, he had no excuse.

Just like his crush, he started to run to the other building.

 

————————

 

His class wasn’t bad at all, he actually had some fun on it, the teacher didn't scold him for being late and was really nice with him, but it wasn’t until he was out of the class that he letted himself breath, his morning had been a wild one.

His morning wasn’t over yet actually, since it were barely 10am, Paulo felt a little tired from all the running and the falling in love he did earlier, so he figured he’d grab something to eat from the small cafeteria saw earlier, so he started his trip to have a small breakfast.

Once he noticed, the campus wasn’t that big, maybe he felt like it was enormous because he was late and scared, but now he knew where some things were, it seemed like a pretty normal campus.

The place had a lot of green areas, which was nice, because back in his home country his school was under the roof and there was literally no place to breath clean air, there he wouldn’t have that issue though, he even saw a football pitch and he was defiantly going to try that later, or maybe tomorrow when he had more time, because now he only had one free period to eat before having another class.

Paulo got to the cafeteria in no time, and as he got in line, he noticed there was a familiar face among the crow waiting for their food, there was Pogba, his neighbor was playing on his phone something that looked really amusing, since the guy was making faces and from what Paulo could see, he was also cursing at the device, Paulo entered a dilemma, because he could go with his neighbor and hang out with him, or he could just ignore him and continue with his day.

And the thing was that they weren’t really friends right? He was just new at the building that was all, and sure Buffon had made it sound like they were a big family but who was Paulo just to go up to him and start talking? Maybe he was shy after all.

Still the young man had little saying in the issue since Paul himself was approaching him with his breakfast in hand.

“Hey newbie” Pogba told him smiling, and hey Paulo didn’t have to worry so much in the end.

“Bonjour” Paulo smiled at him too, it was nice seeing a familiar face in a new place, even if it wasn’t really that familiar, but at least someone there knew his name. “What are you doing here?” he asked, because he couldn’t remember Pogba saying something about going to school, but again neither did Paulo.

“Well right now I’m about to have breakfast” he was obviously messing with Paulo, perfectly knowing what he meant but not telling him.

“No shit sherlock, I mean in campus, what do you study?” Pogba looked like the kind of guy who didn’t like school, like he just went because he had to, but Paulo hated to judge people on their appearances.

“I’m here on a football scholarship, so I still don’t decide, but maybe something that has to do with sports” now that he mentioned it, the guy looked really sportish. “and what are you doing here? mon ami?”

The line advanced a little so Paulo moved along.

“I’m on international relations” he didn’t sound happy while saying it because it didn’t make him happy, but it would at least bring food to his table in the future.

“That sounds really boring” Pogba didn’t even try to hide it, and Paulo just laughed at it.

“It isn’t, but its something” That’s how Paulo felt about this whole school thing, as long as it payed the bills, who cared? Maybe it was a shitty way of seeing things, but as long as he could help his family.

“Well newbie, just because I like you a little” Pogba joked. “I’ll let you have breakfast with me, so when you’re ready” Pogba pointed at the line, and it was actually Paulo’s turn. “You can join me in that table over there” That said the french walked to one of the tables in the back and waited for Paulo.

Paulo who didn’t take long joining him, and once he sat there, Paulo realized that it was really nice having someone to share anecdotes with, since Paulo had begin with the whole moving thing, he distanced himself from his friends, in the end just a couple of them talked to him, but this? This was nice, Pogba was nice and as long as he didn’t know that Paulo got lost and almost cried, everything felt like it could be alright.

Maybe this wasn’t the worst decision ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see I'll upload every week (or at least try to)
> 
> Comments are always welcome and here's my tumblr just in case
> 
> bat-boywonder.tumblr.com


	3. The one where Paulo asks too many questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paulo is happy, until he's not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this, I sure had some fun writing it.

Two weeks came and went really fast, the moment Paulo noticed, it was already monday again.

 

He felt weird because his mother had told him the first few weeks were the hardest ones, but for Paulo that wasn’t the case, his neighbors had made his firsts weeks the best ones so far, Buffon was right, they were like a family and he felt like he fitted right in. 

 

Everyone was being so nice with him that it felt unreal, he was sure that not many neighbors had this kind of relationships, but he was glad that everyone was so friendly, they had made it a lot easier that he thought, it was nice to have someone to talk to, he always bumped into someone in the hall and feeling like he belonged to something bigger than him, that was a pretty nice feel.

 

In this last few weeks he had meet the rest of his neighbors, from the sarcastic Leo, going through Zaza and getting to know Evra, everyone was really nice to Paulo, and again, he couldn’t be thankful enough. 

 

Since the first day he realized that Pogba went to the same school as him, they had decided that they would always go together, every morning they would meet in the front of the building, sometimes they would walk and other times, times when they were late, they would take Paulo’s car. 

 

Also Pereyra was starting to grow on him, or maybe it was the other way around, since the both of them liked FIFA, the other argentine went sometimes to Paulo’s apartment to play and they had a lot of fun together.

 

At one point Buffon had realized that Paulo had no cooking skills at all, so he took as his personal task to make sure that Paulo didn’t die from malnutrition, that’s why he often invited the young man to have dinner at his place, and sometimes he even made some lasagna for the boy to take to his apartment. 

 

So yeah, Paulo couldn’t complain at all, he had new friends, he was doing well in school and the internet was pretty fast in the building, what else could a 21 year old could ask for? 

 

But of course there was something, there’s always something. 

 

See, the thing that was bothering him, the only thing weird, was that he had yet to meet Alvaro. 

 

Apparently Alvaro was one of his neighbors, he lived at apartment 9 and was about his age, but Paulo had never seen him, sometimes it felt like the guy didn’t exist at all. 

 

Everyone always mentioned the guy, like all the time, and they made it sound like he was the best guy in the world and everyone loved him, but not once had Paulo bumped into him, which was pretty weird since Paulo had literally bumped into everyone else in the building, Paulo started to wonder if the guy was real or was some kind of collective hallucination. 

 

Paulo was curious by nature, and he started to get really frustrated about the subject, so it got to the point where he was actively searching for the guy, he even went a couple of times to his apartment, but no one ever answered the door. 

 

Once Leo had caught him knocking and he just laughed at Paulo, saying that he shouldn’t bother at all, that Alvaro wasn’t home and he wouldn't be for a couple of days, after that Paulo stopped. 

 

Still, Paulo couldn't help but wonder about the guy, because the thing with the Alvaro situation, was that everyone was so weird about it, when someone talked about Alvaro everyone smiled, but the moment Paulo asked about where the guy was, everyone suddenly changed the subject, like no one wanted to actually talk about it. 

 

Luckily for him he wouldn’t have to worry about that no more, because his prayers were answered, his blessing came disguised as a party. 

 

Buffon had invited them all to eat at his house, as an official welcome to the Argentine boy, Paulo didn’t liked to be the center of attention, well actually he did, he loved it, but not in this kind of things, still he couldn’t say no to something this nice, and once he started to think about it, this party was perfect, because Gigi had told him the whole building was invited, and that meant that Alvaro was invited too, and since this was some how a big deal, he had to show up right? 

 

He couldn’t wait for friday to come. 

 

——————

 

So after some days of waiting around, well not exactly around he had school and things to do, friday came and Paulo couldn’t be more excited about it, the whole week he told Pogba how happy he was, the only response he got from Pogba was his friend making fun of him, because who got this excited for some dinner with his neighbors?, Paulo just flipped him the bird and left.

 

Excuse him if he was curious about this Alvaro guy, but hearing what everyone had said about him had made him really intrigued. 

 

He was already leaving his place so he could go over Buffon’s, he hoped he was on time, after all he had stopped after school at a small bakery Cuadrado had recommended him, he couldn’t show up at the reunion with bare hands, he had manners. 

 

His first plan was to buy some wine, but it was way too expensive and he knew nothing about wines, so he decided to save himself the bother, a lemon pie on the other hand? Perfect. 

 

So he went with a smile on his face and a pie between his hands. 

 

Paulo bumped into Evra and Pereyra, so the three of them went downstairs together, the trip was pleasant, they were laughing about Paulo’s non existent cooking skills and about how Evra couldn’t flirt even if his life depended on it. 

 

Once they arrived at the 1st floor they found more company, there were Zaza, Leo, and Pogba, talking animatedly in the hallway.

 

"Bounasera" Evra said as the three approached the other.

 

“What are you doing out here?” Paulo asked with curiosity

 

"Waiting for Gigi to open the damn door, as you know, he likes to get everything done before the guests enter, the man has such good manners that hurts" Zaza mocked, and that was true, Gigi was a gentleman in every sense of the word, many appended to the fact that he was the oldest in the building, but Paulo just thought he was that way. 

 

They didn’t have to wait too long, after 3 minutes Gigi opened the door with a smile, and welcomed everyone inside, once they were inside, Paulo got a nice look at what was going to be their dinner. 

 

“Gigi this looks delicious!” Cuadrado said, and everyone instantly knew the guy’s mouth was watering, and really everyones mouth were, Gigi was an excellent cook, for a moment Paulo thought it was way too much food for everyone but he remembered Chiellini and Pogba ate a lot, so he figured they would be just fine. 

 

“Uhh…I brought a pie” Paulo felt kind of dumb, his little pie was nothing next to Gigi’s food. “It doesn’t compares to what you did, but its something" Paulo smiled as he approached Gigi who was in the kitchen, the older one smiled and thanked him, he took it away, saving it for later, but not before he showed everyone the pie. 

 

“See? This is why Paulo is my favorite, he has something called manners” Gigi scolded the rest of the group, but they were too busy taking seats and getting ready to eat, of course Buffon told them not to touch the food, they had to wait for the rest of the guests. 

 

"Somebody said something about manners? Because I brought wine” Claudio said appearing from the living room to the dining room carrying a bottle of wine that looked pretty expensive, for the first time Paulo asked himself what did Claudio did for a living? He looked quite rich but he lived with them and well, this wasn’t the fanciest place to live. 

 

"Claudio and Paulo are my favorites” Buffon joked as he received his friend and kept the wine. 

 

Just when Zaza began to complain that he was hungry and wanted to eat, Cuadrado appeared followed by Sami and Chiellini. 

 

Once they all sat in their places Gigi gave the order that they could start eating, the boys didn’t have to listen twice when they were already stuffing their plates.

 

But the young argentinian couldn’t help but wonder.

 

“Shouldn’t we wait for Alvaro, Gigi?” Paulo asked looking around, like he was expecting Alvaro to just show up from nowhere. 

 

Before Gigi could say anything, Leo spoke first.

 

"No, that kid wouldn’t come even if we were giving away gold, he’s too busy fraternizing with the enemy" strangely that wasn’t the first time he heard that expression used while talking about Alvaro, only thing was Paulo didn’t quite understand who the enemy was.

 

"No Leonardo, shut up and keep eating" Claudio told the Italian, who ignored him and continued eating. "Alvaro is not coming today Paulo, you’ll have to wait a little longer to meet him" Claudio said, and Paulo couldn’t help but to feel a little angry. 

 

“But why isn’t he coming?” Paul felt like a child who doesn’t know anything, he hated that feeling. "Who is the enemy?" He knew that his neighbors didn’t owe him any explanations, but curiosity was killing him.

 

Buffon sighed as he stopped eating, he looked like he was about to tell a long story, so Paulo focused all of his attention on the keeper. 

 

“No one is our enemy Paulo, Leo is just exaggerating, it's just that Alvaro is always with his friends at the RM building" at this Pereyra made a sound, wining a glare from Gigi. “It's the one next to ours”

 

He remembered that building, it was white and it looked nice and clean, one time Paulo had wanted to go and explore it but Paul had stopped him before he could get closer, he remembers Pogba muttering something about madridistas, so that’s where Alvaro was? 

 

While he had one doubt solved, about 5 more appeared in his mind, why was Alvaro always there? Didn’t he had friends here? Why is the whole building their enemy? Enemy of what exactly? He wanted to ask all these questions and apparently his face showed his confusion because Buffon continued. 

 

 

"What happens is that Alvaro has some friends there” The oldest one sighed. “He spent his entire life living in that building, he moved to our building about 8 months ago and he still misses his friends, we tried to welcome here and everyone here likes him, but hey the heart wants what it wants, right?” Everyone had fallen silent to hear what Buffon had to say, for some reason it seemed like this was a sensitive issue, but why do they care so much if their neighbor didn’t spend much time at the building? To Paulo the whole thing sounded absurd and childish. 

 

“Can’t you tell him that?” for Paulo the answer was simple, if they had a misunderstood with their friend they could talk to him, but apparently it wasn’t that easy since he heard Zaza laughing. 

 

“We’ve talked with him thousand times, always telling him he should stay here, we’ve tried to make him understand he’s been mistreated enough times, but he never listens” Zaza looked annoyed by this since he was massacring the chicken on his plate. 

 

“Paulo, is not that easy, after all Leo is right, we are enemies" Chiellini mentioned. 

 

“Enemies? Why? What did they did? And if they mistreated him why is Alvaro still there?” this talk kept confusing Paulo, he felt like he was living a telenovela. 

 

"It's a rather long story Paulo" Gigi sounded a bit tired of talking about this, as if it was a subject he didn’t like to talk about. 

 

“The point here is that Alvaro wants to go back to that building and since he can’t he takes the best next thing, that’s why he’s never home, and that’s all you need to know about this Paulo” Claudio said. 

 

"But--"

 

"Enough Paulo, we are here to celebrate your arrival, not to discuss Alvaro’s situation" And with that Claudio ended the conversation.

 

They all stayed in an uncomfortable silent, and Paulo felt like he had to apologize, but then he felt Gigi’s hand in his shoulder and when he looked the man was smiling at him, like assuring him everything was all right. 

 

The silence was disturbed by Leo, who burped really loud, the next thing Paulo knew was that everyone was laughing, everyone except Claudio, he was trying to keep his straight face, like wanting to scold Leo, he failed though. 

 

Paulo looked around, feeling weird, on one hand he wanted to know more about this enemies thing, but on the other he wanted to ignore it. 

 

After the Alvaro thing, everyone returned to their good mood, and the evening became quite comfortable, Paulo spent the afternoon eating and laughing with his new friends, but at the back of his mind the subject was still itching him, he had a lot of questions but now he knew that he would have to find the answers himself. 

 

—————

 

The next day he decided that from monday on, he would use all his free time to learn more about the strange rivalry.  

 

But since now it was saturday, he would do homework because he was actually here to have good grades, not to gossip, besides he wanted to rest a little, who could blame him?

 

So after some hours of hard work, he didn’t even went to youtube to watch funny videos of cats doing weird things, he looked at the clock and saw it already were 3pm, for some moments he wondered on what he could do next, his stomach started to growl and he realized he was in fact, hungry, so he ordered pizza and while he was doing so, he hoped Gigi wouldn’t notice because if the italian knew this was the 3rd time in the week Paulo ordered food, he’d kill him.

 

Once he made sure his food was on the way, he sat in his living room to wait, after some point he turned his TV on and he found a channel where they only played latin music, so he settled for that one. 

 

He wasn’t sure when, but at one point he had started to dance around his living room, honestly he felt kind of silly, but he just ignored it, he was all alone and was young, also every time he heard one of Paulina Rubio’s song, he lost all shame. 

 

“ _Aunque vengas a rogarme, a pedir y a suplicarme_ ” 

 

Paulo wished he had alcohol to accompany his evening with, but he knew that he only had milk and some juice at his refrigerator.  

 

He took his remote controller and used it as a microphone, and that’s when inspiration really hit him. 

 

“ _Aunque vengas y me llores_ ” 

 

He would have kept singing and dancing, but he suddenly stopped when he heard a noise, and just like that he realized he wasn’t as alone as he thought, he froze in the middle of the living room, the window was wide open, he had an audience. 

 

There were 3 heads peeking out of the other’s building window, two of the guys were staring at him with big smiles on their faces, the other looked embarrassed for both Paulo and him, the others though, looked like they were about to burst of laughter. 

 

Paulo was red as a tomato, he just staring at the other guys, the two guys started to laugh like there was no tomorrow, or at least that’s what Paulo heard, so he did the next thing any other guy would do, he hid behind his couch, and since the three of them were actually speaking spanish, Paulo could understand every word they were saying, great he could hear how they were making fun of him.

 

He waited for the laughs to eventually die, it seemed that God took pity on him because one of them started to scold the others, telling them not to laugh at the poor boy.

 

“Come on Isco, cut it out” he heard a voice say, he sounded a little annoyed by his friends, who were imitating Paulo’s singing voice. 

 

“Did you see that? That’s too funny to just cut it out” replied the boy who Paulo assumed, was Isco. 

 

“Enough is enough, besides it’s not like you haven’t done that, you’re not safe either Sese, Iker told me about those times you sing in the shower” the annoyed voice said, this time calling out on the 3rd participant. 

 

After that, Paulo couldn’t hear a word they were saying, it looked like they were finally gone, and when Paulo peeked his head, there was nobody around and the other window was closed, he sighed in relief and went to close his window.

 

Paulo made a promise to himself, he’d never ever open that window again, actually he wondered if Pirlo would get angry if he just blocked the damn thing. 

 

Paulo sat in his couch, still red and embarrassed, he couldn’t believe that just happened to him, he wished the earth would open and swallow him, now he had to avoid those 3 guys for the rest of his life, but that could be easy right? After all that was the first time Paulo saw someone from other buildings, if Paulo had any luck they wouldn’t tell anyone, but of course knowing his fucking luck by this time tomorrow everyone in the world would know it, maybe they filmed him and he was being uploaded to youtube. 

 

He groaned, now he understood why they were the enemies. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well there you go
> 
> Poor Paulo, he's making a fool of himself, also this is really slow building okay? really really slow, I have some plans for this guys.
> 
> this is the song Paulo was listening to
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y52cRAECwg
> 
> Don't forget to comment.


	4. The one where Paulo finally gets some answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally Paulo gets some answers, they're not what he expected though

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long, I had a writer block and my school's keeping me busy, luckily for you, two weeks more and I'm on vacation, that means more chapters, finally here it is!

A couple of days had passed since the window incident, and since then Paulo hasn’t heard nor saw any of the 3 guys, and he really couldn’t even remember their faces at all, the only thing he remembered was that one of the guy’s name was Isco, but besides that, the details of the incident were erased from Paulo’s mind, and since he couldn’t do anything but forget, he just ignored it happened and moved on with his life. 

 

During the week he tried to find some answers but so far his “investigation” wasn’t going anywhere, he didn’t know shit about Alvaro, he didn’t know what was with the whole enemies thing, and he didn’t know why Pirlo moved away, and yes that was one of his concerns, one of his theories was that maybe the guy moved out because things got really serious, in that case Paulo would consider to move again. 

 

So yeah, Paulo didn’t know how to investigate at all, one day he just decided he’d ask Pogba, maybe if his friend was alone he would give him some answers, maybe he just didn’t want to talk in front of others. And that’s what he did, he asked Pogba one morning when they were heading to school. 

 

Pogba was telling him one of his jokes, or one time he pranked someone, it was hard to know, because Pogba spoke italian really fast and Paulo didn’t, but when the other stayed quiet for a couple of seconds Paulo saw his chance to ask him. 

 

“So…” he started, but sadly he couldn’t even ask something, Paul was already shutting him up. 

 

“Don’t even start” Pogba looked serious and stopped his tracks, he saw Paulo and the argentine felt some kind of chill go down his spine. “I’m not telling you anything, Claudio said that conversation was over, and it is” But instead just giving up, Paulo pushed the subject. 

 

“Come on Pogba, we’re friends, right?” Paulo smiled at him, trying to sound convincing. 

 

“Trust me, you don’t want to get involved in all of this” The French started walking again, not caring if Paulo was following or not. 

 

And while that sounded like Pogba was keeping him away from something, it only made Paulo feel more curious, so he ran to his side and kept talking. 

 

“But I do!” That came off a little higher than Paulo expected, it almost sounded like a spoiled child asking for something. “I want to know more!” 

 

“And I want to fly, but not everything is possible my friend” Pogba looked over at him and smiled a little, trying to be more compressive. “Trust me when I say that I want to tell you, but Gigi told me not to” 

 

Paulo just stared at the floor, so that meant Buffon really didn’t want to get Paulo involved in the building’s dynamic, but again, it only made Paulo more curious. He was going to say something more, but decided against it, if Buffon had told Pogba to stay quiet, there wasn’t much that Dybala could do about it, so instead he just thought of who could he ask for more information, maybe he’ll have to go to another building to get more answers. 

 

The rest of the walk was silent, and Paulo felt a little guilty about it, because usually Pogba liked to joke around and talk, but it seemed like Paulo’s effort to try and get some answers out of him had made him uncomfortable, so once they arrived at campus, Paulo apologized. 

 

“Hey I’m sorry” They were standing in front of Pogba’s classroom, so Paulo didn’t have a lot of time to give him a long apologize. “I’m just curious like that”

 

Pogba just smiled, that made Paulo feel better. 

 

“Don’t worry, its just…that’s a sensitive subject, but trust me, you’ll find out sooner or later, just wait, I was just like you when I arrived” With that said Pogba entered his classroom and left Paulo alone in the corridor, well not like alone alone because there were a lot of students trying to get to class. 

 

So Paulo just turned around and walked to his own classroom, he had time so Paulo walked slowly, he didn’t want to get to his classroom and be the first one there, he wasn’t a nerd like that. 

 

He still had more questions, and honestly he’d rather find out sooner than later. 

 

For a second he thought about leaving the issue alone, Paulo remembered that once his mother told him that its when you stop looking when you find what you want or some shit like that. 

 

It was true that he was curious about Alvaro, but was it really worth it? To get his friends/neighbors mad at him just because he couldn't let the thing be? It didn’t seem worth it at all. 

 

Paulo was thinking about everything, and was so focused that he bumped into someone, when he looked up he felt his cheeks getting warmer, it was the hot guy from before, the one who helped him get to his classroom on his first day, Paulo had been so focused on everything that he forgot about this Adonis existence. 

 

“Sorry sorry” The other man said, and Paulo was just about to say that he was sorry too, but the guy just ran and left him with the words on the tip of his tongue, apparently he was going after someone, and when Paulo heard who, he froze. 

 

“Isco! Wait for me hostia!” 

 

Paulo hid behind a wall, normally he wasn’t a guy who spied other’s conversations, but if Paulo wasn’t wrong, Isco was the guy who laughed at him, and that meant that Mr. Handsome was one of Isco’s friends, great another reason to hate him more, or at least dislike him at some extent. 

 

“You’re too slow man, we’re already late because of you!” Luckily for Paulo, it seemed like Isco liked to scream while talking because it made it easier for him to hear everything he was saying. “If you hand’t gone back to your apartment for your books, we’d already be in class” And apparently Isco was mad at Mr. Handsome for going back to his apartment, Paulo wasn’t sure what he was taking from this conversation, but suddenly the idea of knowing more about his little crush, was promising. 

 

“I couldn’t just come to class without them, and you know it” Mr. Handsome had a very quiet voice, but it was deep enough so Paulo could hear him, even if it was barely. It sounded like the guy was still talking, but now Paulo couldn’t hear a thing, so he made a bold move and peeked over the wall, trying to get a look at them, but Paulo had never been subtle about anything, so of course Mr. Handsome saw him. 

 

The other guy stopped talking, and stared at him, Isco noticed this and went to look at where his friend was looking, and that was Paulo’s cue to hide again. 

 

“Hey, what’s up? What are you looking at?” Paulo was praying for the guy to not say a word about him, and someone up there liked him, because Mr. Handsome just dismissed the thing. 

 

“Nothing, I thought I saw someone” The argentine was smiling internally, thanking the gods that he didn’t say a word, because it would have been really awkward if Isco knew that the guy he saw embarrass himself over the weekend was spying on one of his conversations. 

 

“Geez, sometimes you’re really weird Alvaro” That was the last thing Paulo heard, the guys were gone and Paulo was left with a beating heart and lateness, so he ran to his classroom and mean to put the issue aside. 

 

Except he just couldn’t, trough all of his classes he kept thinking about it. 

 

So he was Alvaro? **The** Alvaro? 

 

Paulo tried to connect all the clues he had. 

 

First of all, he knew that Alvaro liked to spend some time at the RM building with some of his friends. 

 

Isco lived at RM building.

 

Mr. Handsome and Isco were friends.

 

Alvaro was spanish, and Paulo remembered Mr. Handsome having a spanish accent. 

 

So it couldn't just be a coincidence that this guy's name was Alvaro, he was friends with Isco and had a spanish accent, besides Mr. Handsome, well Alvaro now, had stared at Paulo like he knew him, and that meant he remembered their small meeting on Paulo's first day, right? It was just normal that he came to the conclusion that Mr. Handsome was **the** Alvaro. 

 

He needed to know what to do with this new information. 

 

But for now he could place a face on the mystery guy, and what a face, it was then when Paulo got that his crush, this incredibly handsome guy was his neighbor, and that just gave him more reasons to keep on investigating. 

 

\---------

 

His day was over a little too fast, and when Paulo noticed he was already heading back to his house, and for some reason he felt like he had forgotten about something. 

 

Of course that something came screaming to him. 

 

"Hey man!" Paulo stopped and looked back just to see Pogba running towards him, the french guy looked a little agitated, as if he had been running for some time to catch up with Paulo. "I thought you were going to wait for me" 

 

Just then Paulo realized that was the thing he forgot about, but who could blame him? He had some other matters on his head, other matters being his handsome neighbor. 

 

"Sorry I...I'm on the moon right now" He apologized and continued walking. 

 

"I can see that" Pogba stared at him, like wondering what was up with his friend, but he didn’t ask anything, and for that Paulo was glad, because he was really close to spill everything to Pogba, and by everything he means his little crush and the fact that he made a fool of himself in front of some strangers. 

 

After a couple of seconds of staring, Paulo looked up and he encountered himself with Pogba’s weird smile, his friend was smiling like he had some secret and he couldn’t wait to say it out loud. 

 

“Uhh…” Paulo narrowed his eyes, trying to figure his friend out, but failing. “Your smile is creeping me out man, what’s happening” 

 

But instead of an answer, what he got was a smack on the back of his neck. 

 

“What? I can’t smile because your presence makes me happy?" Pogba simply replied, not even trying to hide his laugh. 

 

“Of course you can, just don’t express it with that creepy smile” The younger one was still intrigued by this. 

 

“Okay you got me” And Paulo was sure that he didn't got Pogba in any sense, but apparently the french was feeling like telling him. “I have a surprise for you, you’ll have to wait though” 

 

“By surprise you mean that you got FIFA 16 and want me to beat your sorry ass?” In Paulo’s mind that was the only surprise Pogba could ever have for him, because they were both college students, so he obviously wasn’t expecting a trip to the Bahamas. 

 

“If there’s going to be an ass kicked, it’s going to be yours Paulo” Pogba laughed at the idea and Dybala couldn’t help but to feel a little insulted, because okay maybe he wasn’t as good as Pogba, but he was good, he won the other day against Lemina “But no, that’s not the surprise, you’ll have to eat today with me to find out” 

 

So now Paulo figured out that the surprise was food, and how could he say no to free food? 

 

“Maybe you want to stuff me so you can eat me later” Paulo was just pretending to be “hard to get”, truth was that Pogba had him at surprise. 

 

“If someone is planning on that, that’s Gigi, I swear the man is eating us all” And that could be true, because he liked to host dinners at his house, not that anyone was complaining, the man was good, he could be a chef or something. 

 

“Okay you win, I’ll come” Honestly it wasn’t like Paulo had something better to do with his free time, for a moment he considered getting a cat, so he wouldn’t be alone all the time, maybe he could ask someone about the building’s rules on pets. “At least I hope its good food”

 

“I cook better than you Dybala” Pogba told him. “Although we gotta admit that anyone cooks better than you” 

 

“Ha ha ha very funny” Paulo said sarcastically. 

 

————————

 

Once both reached their building, just before entering Pogba stopped Paulo, the French boy had a serious look on his face and the Argentine worried for a moment, usually Pogba never looked so serious and when he did it was because the issue was sensitive. 

 

"Before we go in, you have to promise not to ask any more questions for today, okay?" The boy even took Paulo's shoulders as he stared at him with a hard look. 

 

With that said they finally entered, and nothing could have ever prepared Paulo for what he saw inside. 

 

At the bottom of the stairs were two guys talking cheerfully, they looked like two friend who hasn’t seen in a while. One of them was Claudio and the other one was Alvaro. 

 

And yes, what surprised him was Alvaro. 

 

“Hey guys, how was school?” Claudio noticed them immediately and welcomed them. “I was just telling Alvaro how weird is to see him here in the middle of the day” That comment meant no harm at all, but still Paulo could have swore that he saw Alvaro flinch. 

 

“Well, I’ve been busy, but now I’m back for good” Alvaro smiled at them, but for some reason Paulo thought that he didn’t sound convinced at all. 

 

“You know you’re welcomed here as long as you want to stay” Claudio smiled at him warmly, like trying to say something else, not just the obvious, that was what Paulo got. “Alvaro I’d like you to meet our new neighbor, Paulo” The italian pointed at Paulo, Dybala moved to greet Alvaro. “He’s been dying to meet you”

 

To say that Paulo was red, didn’t cover the shade his cheeks were in, that made Pogba laugh and Paulo kicked him in the shin, of course that Alvaro noticed that. 

 

“I’m sure that Claudio is exaggerating, he does that” Alvaro shook his hand with that smile that made Paulo weak in the knees. “I’m Alvaro Morata, a pleasure to meet you” 

 

For a moment there Paulo thought that Alvaro was going to tell them that technically they had already meet, but he was glad that his neighbor was ignoring the past, he didn’t want Pogba to know that in their first encounter Paulo had been close to tears, and that in the second one he was singing Christina Aguilera’s songs. There were secrets that had to be kept. 

 

“Paulo Dybala” Was the only thing that came from his mouth, great, now surely Alvaro would thought that Paulo was some kind of Pokemon who could only say his name. 

 

“Well bambini” Claudio patted Alvaro on the back. “I better get going, I’m already late and Llorente hates it when I’m late for dinner” 

 

“Send my greetings to Fernando” Alvaro told Claudio, and another question popped into Paulo’s mind, who’s Fernando? But he’ll ask that later. 

 

“Of course” Claudio kissed each of them in the cheek and left with a ciao. 

 

So now there were the three of them, standing in the middle of the stairs, Paulo couldn’t say that this wasn’t uncomfortable. 

 

“I’m starving, lets get something to eat” Pogba started climbing the stairs and Alvaro followed him, Paulo was just walking behind them, hearing their conversation but feeling confused as to why Alvaro was following Pogba. 

 

“You okay there Paulo?” Alvaro seemed to notice Paulo’s quietness and looked behind to the guy. 

 

“Leave him, he’s just being a weirdo” Pogba joked.

 

“Weirder than you? That’s impossible” Paulo was being witty, and that made Alvaro laugh. 

 

“You shouldn’t insult the guy who's making you food Dybala” The French warned him. 

 

Finally they got to Pogba’s apartment, Paulo had been there a couple of times so he already knew where to lay down for a while, he left his backpack on the floor and went to the living room, Pogba’s couch was the softest thing ever and once there, Paulo didn’t want to move at all.

 

“Yeah you know, make yourself comfortable and everything” Pogba screamed from the kitchen and even though he was far away, Paulo could hear the sarcasm. 

 

What he could also hear was Alvaro talking to his friend. 

 

“You didn’t tell me someone else was coming” Alvaro said, and from his tone of voice Paulo could tell he wasn’t the only one confused. 

 

“Paulo’s a good friend, besides you could use some new friends” Pogba never hid his true emotions, and Paulo was sure he heard some bitterness. 

 

“I’m not having this conversation again” And with that Alvaro’s steps moved from the kitchen to the living room, where he found Paulo sprawled in the couch. 

 

First thing Alvaro did was to laugh a little, and Paulo suddenly felt self conscious. 

 

“Looks like you had no trouble finding the living room” And Alvaro must have thought that he was being funny, and in a way he was, but Paulo had so many questions that the joke didn’t sound funny to him. 

 

“Now you do know me?” Paulo sits up.

 

“Well I didn’t think you would appreciate me explaining our previous meetings” Okay the spaniard had a point there, Paulo had to give him that. 

 

“Fine, you win this time” 

 

They were left in an uncomfortable silence, like neither of them knew how to act and trying to ignore the awkward first and second meetings. 

 

“Okay this is obviously not working” Alvaro was the one who brought up the elephant in the room. “Lets start again, okay? I’m Alvaro, I live next door and we go to the same school” 

 

That made Paulo laugh for some reason, and he letted all out, the tension and the awkwardness he was feeling, Alvaro started to laugh too, lord know why, but it made Paulo feel a lot better, and okay Paulo could do this. 

 

“I’m Paulo and I live in apartment 21, I’m from Argentina” They shook hands again and with that, the whole weird atmosphere was gone. 

 

“Well Paulo from Argentina, even though I said that we’re starting again I gotta say, you have a lovely voice” Alvaro was smirking at him and Paulo thought that look was great on him, maybe Alvaro was a cheeky bastard and Paulo knew that was just his type.

 

“Alvaro you’re an asshole” Dybala was going to say something, but of course Pogba came just in time to hear his last comment. 

 

“Wow Paulo, stop being so rude to Alvaro, he might be a pain in the ass but he’s a good one” Pogba said and just after the words left his mouth he realized what he had said, of course the three of them started to laugh.

 

A couple of seconds later, and when they were more relaxed, Pogba mentioned that the food was ready so they went to the kitchen table to eat. 

 

The whole afternoon was filled with laughs and more teasing from every end of the conversations, Paulo found a little more about Alvaro and the more the guy laughed the more Paulo liked him. The three of them had some things in common, they liked football and they were broke college students, what other topics could you ask for while talking to friends? 

 

Alvaro was about their age and was from Spain, he moved to Italy at the end of his high school and lived at the RM building ever since, when he mentioned that Paulo wanted to ask some things, but Pogba kicked him under the table so Paulo stayed quiet. The spaniard also mentioned he moved here a year ago, but didn’t mentioned why. 

 

Overall they were having a lot of fun, once they finished eating Pogba invited them to the living room so they could play some FIFA, it was really fun because they were playing the world cup, so each of them choose their national team, and between curses, laughs and teasing the afternoon came and left. 

 

But everything comes to an end, and the end for their afternoon came when Alvaro got a phone call, Paulo couldn’t hear a lot of the conversation since Alvaro took the phone call in the kitchen, but judging by Alvaro’s face when he came back, he was leaving soon. 

 

“I have to go now” It was obvious that Alvaro didn’t want to leave, and Dybala wanted to protest and tell him that he should stay, that they could keep having fun and he only had to stay, but he didn’t. 

 

“Let me guess, Isco?” Pogba sounded annoyed and he was staring at the TV, like trying not to see Alvaro, who looked like he just kicked a puppy. 

 

“Yeah he…He needs help with his homework” And even Paulo could tell that was a lame excuse, but he stayed quiet, trying to gather more information with this little exchange of words. 

 

“Ok, Have fun then” Was all that Pogba told Alvaro. 

 

The spaniard just stood there for a couple of seconds, looking at Pogba like trying to tell him he was sorry, but in the end he didn’t say a thing. 

 

“Bye guys, this was nice” With a wave of his hand an a small smile for Paulo, Alvaro left them alone. 

 

Pogba was angry and hurt, Paulo could tell, he wasn’t even paying attention to the match, and Paulo was scared of just pausing it and make the guy talk, but he didn’t have to wait a lot in silence. 

 

“This…” Pogba sighed and paused the game. “This happens a lot, he’s one of my best friends and still he doesn’t understand how much we care for him, he keeps going back to them” 

 

Those are the only words Pogba says, the French guy just resumes the game and keeps playing as if nothing happened.

 

That day Paulo gets some answers, but most important he starts to understand what’s happening. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really not trying to make Isco a bad guy or anything, I love that little asshole, and you'll understand later.
> 
> Also I'm searching for a beta reader in case someone is interested, you can send me a message to my tumblr 
> 
> If you liked it, don't forget to comment


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